Any business which grows large enough will need to start thinking about how they introduce their hires to the ways they work. Many companies assume pitching a powerful culture will attract great candidates who will work hard no matter what, and that the rest will take care of itself. This is unfortunately not the case. Companies need to create better programs for onboarding new employees if they want to make great hires and keep them too. Here are some of the most important things companies can learn when putting together their onboarding programs.

New employees can bring a slew of new ideas to the table. Integrating the best of these ideas into the company’s processes can only happen after the new employee fully understands the culture and values within the organization. Everything from onboarding new employees to 360 performance reviews should have an underlying theme of team alignment and tie in company values. It’s a cyclical, give-and-take relationship. Employees must understand their place in the organization in order to help the organization move toward its goals; and the organization must understand the motivations and strengths of the employee in order to help them assimilate to the team or department. Employee loyalty thrives when workers understand their place in organizational goals and how they play a part in company values. So what tools does your organization need to maintain values and team alignment from the onboarding process to the time they cycle out of the company? Onboarding

Within the first six months of a new job, 86% of employees decide whether they’d like to stay or search for a different job. Aberdeen Group finds that an additional 69% of new employees are likely to maintain a job for at least three years if the HR, managers and IT crews perform welcoming employee onboarding.

In our work with many client companies, we have found that onboarding is often put on the back burner. Too many leaders believe onboarding is such a low impact function that it gets neglected. No one is really in charge of the process and employers have no clue how harmful this can be to their employer brand.

There are two main components in all successful onboarding programs. On one hand, you have the acculturation of the new employee – the human side of onboarding. The other component is the paperwork and compliance side of onboarding. Both are vital, and both require the right tools to maximize efficiency.

The first days and weeks of a new job are an exciting, nervous time in the employee lifecycle. If you hired right, these newbies are coming in with that spark and tenacity for the company vision, but it has to be fueled in order to stay lit.